Last month, a Swansea Crown Court jury cleared Matthew Gealy, 34, of Port Tennant, Swansea, of causing Ghalib Saleh Abdullah’s death by dangerous driving but convicted him unanimously of causing death by careless driving.

Judge Keith Thomas banned father-of-two Gealy from driving for three years, gave him a 40 week jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to do 250 hours unpaid work for the community.

Driver slowed down outside fish bar

Huw Rees, prosecuting, explained how Gealy was behind the wheel of a BMW X5 on Port Tennant Road in Swansea on September 19, 2012, when he was aware of a “bang”.

Gealy’s car had collided with Mr Abdullah who was attempting to walk across a pedestrian crossing at the time.

He said some of the group had cans and he suspected a few had been drinking.

Gealy said he “honestly did not see” Mr Abdullah on the crossing before the collision took place and that his attention was “fixed” on the group.

He told police “he hoped Mr Abdullah wold be all right”.

Co-operative with the police

Mr Rees said it was the prosecution’s case all along that the defendant failed to take heed of a person crossing because he was “avoidably distracted” and should have been concentrating on the road ahead of him.

The court heard it was Gealy who called the emergency services to get help for Mr Abdullah immediately after the collision.

Gealy remained at the scene and was co-operative with police when they arrived to investigate what had happened.

The jury heard Mr Abdullah, who lived in Port Tennant, died a few days later. A Home Office pathologist concluded the impact had worsened existing health problems suffered by Mr Abdullah.

Judge Thomas heard a victim impact statement written by Mr Abdullah’s family who said his loss was “immeasurable” and that he had been the “pillar of the family”.

'Sailed half way across the world'

The statement also spoke of how Mr Abdullah had “sailed half way across the world” from Yemen before eventually settling in Swansea with his wife and having a family.

Judge Thomas told Gealy he accepted his remorse over the death of Mr Abdullah was genuine.

But he told him: “You said it would have taken you ten seconds to travel from the place where you had parked your car to the zebra crossing.

“We have been told it would have taken Mr Abdullah around four seconds to go across the zebra crossing so he should have been in your view.

“I’m satisfied the accident is a result of your failure to keep a proper look out.

“The area was well lit and Mr Abullah was wearing chequered clothing that was both dark and light and he had on a light cap.

“You failed to properly observe your surroundings and take a global view.”

John Hipkin, defending Gealy, said it was entirely a coincidence the defendant had got into his car to get baby items on September 19, 2012 and Mr Abdullah had attempted to go across the zebra crossing as Gealy was distracted by people at the chip shop.